GRAND RAPIDS, MI – The 48-year-old former counselor and foster parent who gave fellow child molesters tips on how to choose their victims was sentenced to nine to 15 years in prison for having sex with a teenage boy.

In December, Jeffrey Victor Marchione pleaded to third-degree criminal sexual conduct for having sex with the child sometime between January 2011 and June 30, 2013, at Marchione’s home at 6683 Kegel Ave. SE, near 68th Street and Thornapple River Drive.

The teen victim from Wyoming was discovered by federal agents while investigating Marchione for child pornography. Marchione pleaded guilty to amassing child pornography in U.S. District Court.

The young man told investigators he had been sexually abused by Marchione when the victim was between the ages of 13 and 16, according to court records.

Marchione worked as a counselor in Grand Rapids and had biological and adopted children. He also opened his home to exchange students and foster children, according to court records.

Federal prosecutors say Marchione lived with about 29 children over the past few years.

Marchione was arrested Aug. 2 when Kent County Sheriff’s investigators showed up at his home.

Marchione served as a Big Brother, a youth mentor, as an adoptive and foster parent, and as a foreign-exchange host.

Through email and Internet exchanges he offered his advice on how best to find perspective victims.

“(Work) with kids and build relationships, be a mentor or big brother or be in scouts or something,” Marchione wrote according to federal prosecutors. “(Is) there a poorer part of town you could volunteer to work with kids after school on their homework?
Be a boy scout and work with the cubs.”

Friends and family members sent the judges in his cases supportive letters and a young woman in the Kent County Circuit Judge James Robert Redford's courtroom on Monday, April 14, said “I love you, dad,” as Marchione was led away by court deputies.

Marchione made no statement in court and no one was there to speak for the victim other than the Kent County Prosecutor’s Office.

Marchione’s state sentence will run at the same time as his federal sentence and will be carried out in federal prison.